Pace of acceptances back into service has been excruciatingly slow. Since this post on 8/23. . .

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:What's with the extremely slowed pace of cars returning to service of late? NETransit's been stuck at 48 in-service rebuilds for nearly a month with 4 cars back on the property languishing in testing. Problems uncovered, or manpower shortage at BET for clearing out the test line?

. . .they've only gone +4 on the in-service rebuild ranks to 52, all of them returnees that had been kicking around the testing line since earlier in summer. NETransit shows only 1 returned unit, 1713, in-testing right now. Where (and with whom) did this program start grinding to a near-halt in the last few months?

I'm not that inquisitive to go through this entire thread to figure out how many cars have left, how many cars have returned, how many cars are back in service, and how many cars are yet to go. Is anyone keeping such a list?

Thanks! Per Wiki, here’s the numbers of various Kawasaki models;BTC-4 = 50 Built 1991CTC-4 = 25 Built 1991BTC-4A = 17 Built 1997BTC-4B = 15 Built 2001 BTC-4C = 33 Built 2005, not funded to be refurbished yet. That makes a sum of 107 funded to be refurbished, so they’re about half way done with the program so far. Eventually they will have to fund the last 33....

The 900's aren't nearly old enough to refurb, and they already have some of the updated components the rebuilt 700's are getting so there's no need to put them into the program. They'll update them in-house some time later for the new ASA screens, but that's really all they'll need for the next 12 years.

Exterior windows are "consumables", and are regulated by the FRA during car inspections for replacement after a specified target of duty cycles. So coach windows get replaced several times before they hit overhaul age. I don't know exactly what the FRA's duty cycle threshold translates to in average MBTA coach service hours, but that is a federally-regulated part replacement spelled out point-blank in the rules.

Superficial scuff marks don't necessarily indicate a replacement-age window. The reasons for the cloudy appearance are too numerous and incidental, and don't necessarily indicate a microfracture problem in the glass (curbing microfractures to prevent high-speed blowouts being the primary reason for the strictness of the FRA replacement regs).